Mozilla Firefox about config tweaks and Hacks

Firefox is one of the best browser available and it’s free and open source web browser developed by Mozilla foundation. The best thing about Firefox browser is you could customize it to any extent. Firefox enables various options in about:config. Here are some of the coolest and Best Mozilla Firefox about config tweaks and hacks you could use to customize firefox settings.

How to Open Firefox about config page?

Before getting on to the firefox about config hacks let’s quickly look at how to open the firefox about config page.

Step 1: Open Firefox browser in normal mode.

Step 2: In the address bar or the URL bar type about:config and hit enter.

Step 3: You will get a warning page which says Changing these advanced settings can be harmful to the stability, security, and performance of this application. You should only continue if you are sure of what you are doing. Click on the button which says I’ll be careful, I Promise button

Step 4: Once you click the button you should be able to see the Firefox about config page as shown below. There are 100’s of firefox settings you could find on the page and if you not sure what it does then do not change the value. This might break the software itself.

Mozilla Firefox about config tweaks and Hacks

1. Disable the Extension installation delay in Firefox

Whenever you install any of the firefox extension there will be a countdown delay of 5 seconds before Firefox begins to install the extension. The delay is there for the user to read the extension details like where it is coming from , Author of the extension and other stuff. But for most of the users, it will be annoying sometimes when they already know about the extension. Here is the simple tweak which you could do to disable theeExtension installation delay in Firefox.

Step 1: Open about:config settings page as shown above.

Step 2: In the search box type security.dialog_enable_delay and double click to change the value of it.

Step 3: Enter the value as 0 as shown above and restart the Firefox browser to see the changes.

2. Speed up Firefox Browser by Enabling HTTP Pipelining

By default, Firefox sends only 1 HTTP request at a time per HTTP connection. This might make loading the web page slower at sometimes. There is a simple tweak available from which you could send multiple HTTP requests at a time. Follow the below steps to Speed up Firefox browser.

Step 1: Open about:config settings page as shown above.

Step 2: In the search box type network.http.pipeliningand double click to change the value of it to true.

Step 3: If you would like to Enable HTTP Pipelining behind a proxy then search for network.http.proxy.pipelining and double click to change the value of it to true.

Note: You could also increase the network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to 100 and browser.cache.use_new_backend value to 1 for better performance.

3. Increase or Decrease the suggestions in the Awesome Bar Dropdown

When you start typing the URL or searching some keyword the Firefox will come up with an awesome bar dropdown with a list of 12 suggestions. Some of it will also from the previous history which you could have visited. If you would like to Increase or Decrease the suggestion lists count in the dropdown follow the below steps.

Step 1: Open about:config settings page as shown above.

Step 2: In the search box type browser.urlbar.maxRichResultsand double click to change the default value of it to your desired number.

4. Open search results in new tab firefox

This is one of the best-hidden feature available in firefox. You might be reading an article or watching a video if you would like to search something then either you have to open a new tab and perform the search. If you enter the search keyword in the same window and hit enter then the page you are on will be refreshed and firefox will load with the search results with the keyword you have entered in the current tab itself. Follow the steps to enable the hidden feature to open search results in new tab

Step 1: Open about:config settings page as shown above.

Step 2: In the search box type browser.search.openintaband double click to change the default value from false to true.